Showing results by author "Peter Meredith" in All Categories

Greed, terrorism, and simple bad luck conspire to bring mankind to its knees as a viral infection spreads out of control, reducing those infected to undead horrors that feed upon the rest. It's a time of misery and death for most, however there are some who are lucky, some who are ruthless, and some who are just too damned tough to go down without a fight. This is their story.

The world is suddenly thrown into chaos as a research project is sabotaged and the dead come alive to feast on the living - it seems like an old story, doesn’t it? The Apocalypse Crusade is not that book. You are not suddenly thrust into a world gone mad. Instead, you get front-row seats to how the sh-t went down. In real time you are witness to the agony and the horror…and the terrible stupidity that made it all possible.

It’s been 12 years since the undead hordes swept over the earth, forcing mankind to the brink of extinction. We now live like rats, scavenging in the ruins of our fallen civilization as the dead hunt us night and day. There is little left to scavenge, however. Grocery stores were emptied ages ago, gas tanks have long been dry, and bullets are so precious that a man is lucky to have two to his name. Still, we survive. But for how much longer?

Five days in the grinder. Five days of endless pain and no sleep. Five days of the hardest work imaginable-it’s the work of surviving and not one second of it has been easy. This is the story of how the world ends as we know it. It’s the story of the apocalypse. It’s the story of how we lost. Those of us who can fight against these urges are called the good guys. There’s very few of us left at the beginning of day five and by the end...well, you will have to see for yourself if there are any good guys left when the clock strikes midnight on humanity.

Beaten and battered in mind and body, the fugitives limp west, unaware that the human world is fading all around them, unaware that the last remnants of the goodness of man is being ground under the heel of evil at every turn. When confronted with that evil, fight or flight are their only choices, however, Neil's small group is hamstrung, forced to take on more refugees who come to them empty-handed, unarmed, and hungry.

In an apocalypse, there is definitely a beginning where mistakes are made and the seeds of evil are allowed to sprout and take shape. However, an end is not so certain. Once an apocalypse occurs, not even death is certain. Sometimes, death is only the beginning.

With the threat of more assassinations on Bainbridge paralyzing the fortified island and spies in her own ranks turning her own men against her, Jillybean has to look to unlikely allies as The Black Captain brings his fury south to destroy her. He is consumed with the idea of revenge, yet he retains a cold, calculating rationality that Jillybean does not. The stress of war, as well as the deaths of her friends and the man she loves by her own hand, is eating away at what little mental stability she has left.

Greed, terrorism, and simple bad luck conspire to bring mankind to its knees as a viral infection spreads out of control, reducing those infected to undead horrors that feed upon the rest. It's a time of misery and death for most, however there are some who are lucky, some who are fast, and some who are just too damned tough to go down without a fight. This is their story.

With people fleeing the valley in droves and Estes no longer the safe haven it had once been, Neil Martin must make some hard choices. His group has dwindled to 70 homeless refugees who have very little left to survive on. They desperately need to find a place to call home before their many enemies realize how defenseless they truly are. Instead of risking everything on a blind thrust across the Rockies to the Pacific, Neil sends out three picked teams to not only find a safe passage through the mountains but to also find a community that will take them in.

As if a zombie apocalypse wasn't bad enough, the country is also in the throes of a second Civil War. Massachusetts has closed its borders to everyone, including the 101st Airborne Division and five million desperate refugees. It's an act of rebellion that the President won't stand for, and with nuclear missiles flying by the hundreds in China, he mulls the idea of using nukes on American soil for the first time.

Nothing is simple anymore in the new undead world. Crossing a road, making tea, meeting new people, all can turn deadly in a twitch of an eye. For the Renegades, who are unarmed and hounded over half the state by ruthless bounty hunters, there's only one thing that they can say is simple: dying. Surrounded by enemies and without help from the imprisoned Captain Grey, they flee from one trap into another with little but the wits of Jillybean and Neil's steadfast leadership to keep them alive. But is it enough?

There are no happily ever afters in the new Undead World. There are no vacations or time-outs or do-overs. There's only the endless daily grind of living or the shockingly horrific fact of death that hangs over every living creature left on the face of the earth. For some, that death lies in a single mistake or a moment of bad luck, or simply in fate. For others, that hard death hounds them day and night, relentlessly.

Quite simply, what could go wrong did go wrong. Given the choice between assuming leadership of a situation that is pure chaos, where the National Guard is forced into a position of going to war against a trapped and possibly infected citizenry, the President chooses to punt. He knows what enforcing a quarantined zone will require: the massacre of tens of thousands of terrified people demanding to get out, and there is no way he's going to have his name and legacy sullied.

In The Apocalypse, the great majority of the men and women who fought with honor - with a sense of duty and loyalty - gave their lives for others, leaving those without honor to flourish and rule. Their rule is not marked by decency or civility, but by wicked brutality. Yet, in some very rare cases, the kind and the noble survived. These hardened survivors learned to live among the undead, but now they must learn how to stay alive among creatures that are far more monstrous: their fellow man.

With zombie hordes swallowing the earth, mankind had no choice except to launch every nuke on the planet to stop them. Now, 150 years later, we live in over-crowded polluted cities, surrounded by vast radioactive wastelands. And no, we did not get all the zombies. They live among us, sometimes hiding in plain sight. Although the tattoos and piercings help them blend in, and the drugs help to contain their rage, they can never fully control their hunger. It’s endless.

Some have been in the cursed house for years, their minds warped into insanity by the fear and pain. Curt is new and can't understand why no one speaks and why the only sounds come from the night. He wonders what it is that comes out of the basement when the sun goes down.

The people of the Estes Valley have found their peace destroyed as they are attacked by the single greatest army left in the world. Not only do they have to contend with an army of men equipped with the latest hi-tech military gear, they also have to battle a horde of undead half a million strong. But, perhaps worse than all of this, they have to deal with a seven year old girl - Jillybean. Cruelly coerced into helping her enemies, Jillybean bends her mind to the destruction of the valley, the death of kings, and the loss of her own soul.

With the great battle between man and the undead apparently won and the situation seemingly in hand, the president leaps into action to take all the credit he can for saving the country and defending the Quarantine Zone. Surrounded by battalions of television news crews, he authorizes Operation Swift Stand in which he commits the nation's entire rapid deployment force in a show-stopping extravaganza designed more to rekindle patriotic fervor and to lift his own sagging poll numbers than to stop the undead.

For Jillybean, moments of utter happiness and pure sanity are as fleeting and wonderful as sun-showers at a July picnic. Her time with Granny Annie is one such moment, but as always it ends far too quickly and she is once more thrust back into a world of crushing loneliness and endless despair.

The war with the Azael has left the people of Estes Valley weakened and isolated in their mountain retreat. Supplies of fuel and ammo are dangerously low and yet Neil bets most of what he has left on a gamble to find Jillybean, who was last seen in the forests of Missouri. Neil is the only one who sees in the little girl a chance at a new beginning. He hopes to harness her genius for the benefit of the valley, but when the gamble fails he must send the only two people he can trust out into a dangerous world to gather more supplies.